Coaching Development

At Woodland Soccer Club (WSC) we don't require you to be a licensed coach. You need to pass the RMA (Risk Management Association) verification check to work with kids, in addition to some basic safe sport training outlined here.

Information on coaching clinics are emailed to coaches and announced on this website. Following on us Facebook and Twitter is an easy way to learn about new training opportunities and practice session ideas. SYSA will host a number of coaching clinics primarily in the summer months. All other questions about coach training or coaching information, please contact the WSC Coach Development Coordinator.

Clinics & Courses

Washington Youth Soccer and United States Youth Soccer are great places to get your start in coaching or, for experienced coaches, to learn a few new tricks. Check out the U.S. Soccer Learning site and browse the “Grassroots” course offerings here. These online course will help orient you to coaching from 4v4 on up. These course charge nominal fees, but WSC will be happy to reimburse you if you choose to take the grassroots courses.

United States Youth Soccer has an excellent coaching page that will guide you to a wealth of resources. Find that here. Their recent partnership with Mojo, an app that will help you put together age-appropriate practice plans, is especially worth exploring. Because there are so many resources online, we suggest you try and explore some of these resources before getting lost in all the content the internet has to offer. But once you have a sense of what’s expected of you as a coach, there is no shortage of ideas for fun games to play at practice, practice plans, and other ideas on sites like Youtube.

Finally, for some age groups, SYSA has weekly practice plans and diagrams that might be helpful. You can find those here. They are working to add some for the youngest age groups, so check back if you don’t see ones for your team. In the meantime, many state youth soccer organizations have practice plans available. The ones from Massachusetts are particularly detailed and exist for all age groups. Find them here. When looking for more ideas, we suggest using the phrase “play practice play soccer sessions.” Many Woodland coaches have found this to be a helpful approach to making soccer fun while helping the kids develop their basic skills.

For all other questions about coach training or coaching information, please contact the WSC Coach Development Coordinator.